NEW YORK - The growth in alternative investments has created yet another professional designation.In an industry saturated with such credentials, the latest mark of expertise, the CAIA, or Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, is intended to demonstrate the holder's knowledge in the specialized areas of alternative investments such as hedge funds, private equity, real estate and commodity investing.

Development of the title has been in the works for several years, and it was officially launched in November.  To get the mark, practitioners have to pass two exams that are offered twice a year, in February and June.

Jim Keene, an adviser in San Francisco who specializes in alternative investments and teaches the subject for chartered financial analyst, or CFA, preparation classes, is planning to take the exam next year.

Keene, who already holds the CFA and CFP (or certified financial planner) titles, expects the certification process will broaden his knowledge of alternative investments and, over time, help bring in more business.

"When somebody is deciding between you and me as an investment adviser - all other things being equal - if I happen to have a title, that gives me some level of credibility," Keene said.

It's likely to be some time before investors can discriminate the latest acronym from the dozens of financial services credentials that already exist.

"In order for it to be impressive in the marketplace, it has to have critical mass," said Mark Tiergien, a partner will Moss Adams LLC, a Seattle accounting firm that does consulting for financial planning firms.  The designation will "allow people to focus on a specific curriculum of continuing education so that they become specialists," he said.  "Does it make you more credible?," he said.  "I'm dubious."

Indeed, it's only in recent years that the CFP title has gained greater acceptance in the financial planning community, even though the title was launched in the early 1970s.

The CAIA designation is co-sponsored by the Alternative Investment Management Association, a trade group based in London, and the Center for International Securities and Derivatives Markets, or CISDM, a research group at the University of Massachusetts.

While other designations provide individuals with a background in traditional investments, there are "unique things in the alternative (area) that deserve their own special focus," said Thomas Schneeweis, director of CISDM.  "The regulatory backgrounds, the investment strategies, the risk and reward characteristics are different."

Assets in alternative investment products have grown dramatically over the past decade.  For example, hedge fund assets have climbed to nearly $600 billion today from $39 billion in 1990, according to Hedge Fund Research, Inc., a Chicago company that tracks hedge fund performance.  Meanwhile, assets under management in private equity vehicles such as venture capital and buyout funds are close to $1 trillion (although a third of that amount was raised in 2000 and may not hold up), said Jesse Reyes of Thomson Venture Economics.  In 1992, the combined amount was $109 billion.

The founders say the designation is intended to supplement, not replace, many of the professional designations offered.

About 10% of the CFA program is devoted to alternative investments, said Bob Johnson, vice president of curriculum and exams at the Association for Investment Management and Research, the Charlottesville, Va.-based group that administers the CFA exams.

To date, more than 100 people have registered for the first CAIA exam in February, said Raj Gupta, a research associate at the newly formed Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association.

The group estimates that someone with a finance background would need to spend about 30 hours studying for the exam.  And although the group currently doesn't have a continuing education requirement, it plans to implement one next year, after the first set of charter holders has been formed, said Hossein Kazemi, an associate director at CISDM.

At least five employees from Norshield Financial Group plan to take the exam next year, said Chris Wright, a vice president at the Montreal financial services company.  The 40-person firm, which specializes in hedge-fund and fund-of-fund investing, said it's paying for the cost of the exam because it believes the preparation will give its employees an edge.

"It will definitely give them a quality foundation," Wright said.  And "it brings credibility to the industry."

Meanwhile Kevin Ferro, chairman of Ferro Capital LLC, a New York-based fund-of-hedge-funds investment firm, said he's not sure if the designation will be necessary for portfolio management given that his firm employs people from a wide range of mostly quantitative backgrounds.  But the people behind the curriculum have "done a lot of work," he noted.